Friday, January 31, 2014

It's Friday, WOOHOO! The weekend's here so it's Stampin' for the Weekend time, and if the weather hasn't changed you might as well get your stamps out because it's miserable outside. Even here in beautiful sunny Florida it's cold, but as we like to say, at least it's not snowing. In the states this is a particularly big weekend. It's Superbowl weekend, so you may be involved in a party or like me, uninvolved with football and sitting in your craft room enjoying some inky time. In that case why don't you play along in our challenge at Stampin' for the Weekend to make anything but a card. For my project I've covered a mini legal pad and put a little pocket inside the cover for coupons. I picked up a package of these pads at an office supply store a while ago. The pads are inexpensive so with a little bit of work and what's already in your stash you've got a great little present. I've made a couple of these and I described how I made the cover in this post.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Texture, that's our Paper Pretties challenge for you this week. Texture will add interest to your card and there are so many ways to add it to your card. Have you spotted the ways I've used texture on my card? There's a couple of them. The cross bar of white card stock was run through my Big Shot in a dotted embossing folder. Fibers also are a good source for texture, here ribbon and twine have been used. The gold card stock is also textured. There are other ways to add texture to your card. If you have some time stop over at the Paper Pretties challenge blog to see the samples the rest of the design team made and what ways forms of textures they used. Now let's see what you can do. When you're finished don't forget to link your creation. You'll be in the draw for a chance to win five digis.Here's the deets:stamp - Paper Pretties, Luke and Lexi "Live, Love, Golf"ink - Memento "Tuxedo Black"paper - Bazzill "Yukon Gold" card stock; Stampin' Up "Whisper White" card stock; Simple Stories Snap Color Vibe 1 dspmiscellaneous - copics; Embossing Folder; ribbon; divine twine; golf bag charm; Memory Box Pearl stickers 24 caratHere's the challenges:Paper Pretties PWC295 - TextureThe Squirrel and the Fox #62 - Use EmbellishmentsOne Stitch at a Time #197 - White plus OneBrown Sugar #78 - EmbossingThanks for stopping by, come back again.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Get your stamps out cause there's no excuses for not playing when the the theme is "Anything Goes". That's right, this week, the challenge at Paper Pretties is Anything Goes. So go get inky and play along with us for your chance to be in the draw for five digis. Did you make a New Year's resolution? Break it yet? I was so lazy I didn't even bother to make one but I'm trying to do some of the things I would've resolved to do. One resolution I usually make is to use up supplies I have. Of course that will take more than my lifetime but I'll keep plugging away at it. I used my favorite Paper Pretties stamp set, "Sassy Shoes" to make this card. I stamped the shoe with black ink onto Ruby Slippers card stock, cut it out, and then popped it up with dimensionals on the heart card stock. The stamp set has four shoes and I always have a difficult time choosing one. There's a bow and a flower you can stamp and cut out to put on the pump plus four sentiments. My favorite thing about this stamp set is the tiny shoe with a "hand stamped for you by". I think that every self respecting gal that has a love for shoes (is there any one who doesn't?) must have this stamp set and frankly, I don't know why every one doesn't own it.Here's the deets:stamp - Paper Pretties - Sassy Shoesink - Memento - Tuxedo Blackpaper - Bazzill "Ruby Slippers" card stock; My Favorite Thing "Black Licorice" and "Natural" card stock; Autumn Leaves "Foof-A-La" dpmiscellaneous - Spellbinder's heart and scalloped heart dies; Stampin' Up oval and Scalloped oval punch; heart bling; blingHere's the challenges:Paper Pretties PWC294 - Anything GoesThe Pink Elephant TPE234 - Pink or RedSentiment Sundays #190 - More than 3 LayersMonday Lunchtime TSSC298 - SketchThanks for stopping by, come back again.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Finally, I've had the time to just make a card for sheer fun of it. To go through the sets of "must have" stamps I've been ordering and get to use some of them.When I saw this Bun Bun stamp set from the Cat's Pajamas I just had to have it. Funny thing is, I don't know a thing about football, it's just cute and I figured it's be a good stamp to use for making cards for guys. I have no idea which teams are in the which league and whose going to the Superbowl or when it is, but I know it's coming up soon and it'll be on at our house and hubby will plan to have dinner and snacks around half time. To get the colors for Bun Buns uniform I did a Google search to see which teams were playing. I was surprised to learn that they weren't determined yet but there were four that were the contenders. I picked the 49ers colors for Bun Bun's uniform's colors for a couple reasons - Bun Bun is from San Francisco, the 49ers have the best colors of all the contenders and if I had to pick a town from the four that's the one I'd pick. I'm a former Jersey girl, that's Jets territory, on general principals alone I have to be against New England...But I digress...Card making...I started making this card on Thursday. I hate using an exacto knife. The card was almost finished when I stabbed my thumb putting away my exacto knife and then proceeded to leave a large drop of blood on my card. It was a time when an embellishment just wasn't going to do the trick and my thumb didn't want to stop bleeding. What started out as a fun morning was turning into bad time. I actually had to unassemble (is that even a word?) the card. I had to walk away from it and let it be for awhile. I went back to it today and finished it up.Here's the deets:stamp - the Cat's Pajama's "Go! Fight! Win!"ink - Memento "Tuxedo Black"paper - My Favorite Things "Kraft", "Steel Blue" and "Safety Orange" card stock; Stampin' Up "Cherry Cobbler" card stock; Recollections Scrapbook papermiscellaneous - copics; Spellbinder's Oval dies; The Cat's Pajama's chevron die; button; twineHere's the challenges:the Cat's Pajama's TCPTUES252 - Paper Piecinga Gem of a Challenge #111 - For the BoysTotally Papercrafts #202 - Paper PiecingSister Act #40 - Anything GoesBrown Sugar #77 - Anything GoesCharisma #2 - It's a Boy ThingThanks for stopping by, come back again.

Friday, January 17, 2014

"Buttons and Bows!" is the theme for the newest challenge at Jellypark Friends. Our challenges run for two weeks so you've got plenty of time to play along. This is one time when it would be so much better if you could see this project in real life. This photograph just does not do any justice to it. First of all you can't tell that it's a Kraft pocket album. It's 6-3/8" x 8-1/2" with a 1/2" spine, it has 8 double sided pocket pages. The pockets can be used to hold photos, recipes or DVDs.

This image is "Girl Hugging Heart". I wanted it to look like old fashioned redwork embroidery. I used a Ultra Fine Point Sharpie pen to trace the image on Vellum and cut it out with a Spellbinder's die. It's adhered on top of a piece of Stampin' Up dsp which is adhered to a piece of dotted muslin fabric. Under that there's a piece of distressed Recollections scrapbook paper, a piece of packaging from some Jolee's embellishments and another piece of Stampin' Up paper. On the vellum there are some buttons stitched through the paper layers.

In the first photo the watermark is covering this part of the photo. The embellishment in the corner was made in the corner by taking a couple inches of lace and running a straight stitch through them and pulling them in a gathering stitch. I made a bow with the gingham ribbon and sewed that and the heart button onto the lace and used a glue gun to adhere it to the book. The burgundy heart is button with its shank removed.

The last close up I'll share is the bow and hanging tags so that you can see that it's a double sheer bow. The little tags that are hanging off the ribbon have the word "love" written on both sides but one side of the tag has a pearl on it and the other side has a rhinestone on it. There are pearls and bailing scattered across the cover, some dew drops and various different types of embellishments, even a small strip of washi tape but there aren't any flowers. Go figure...Here's the deets:stamp - Jellypark Friends "Girl Hugging Heart"ink - Sharpie penspaper - Recollections scrapbook paper; Stampin' Up "Sending Love Specialty" dsp and Vellummiscellaneous - Spellbinder's heart die; Close To My Heart wood button; Peebles Heart button; Stampin' Up Boutique Details; pearls bling; Jolee;s boutique cameo; ribbon; lace dew drop; SU tag; washi tape; pinHere's the challenges:Jellypark Friends - Buttons and BowsCurtain Call - Love LettersDivas by Design - Use RibbonSimon Says Stamp - Anything GoesAllsorts week 241 - RibbonThanks for stopping by, come back again. Over the next few weeks I'll have more of the album to show you.

It's Friday, so it's time to break out your craft supplies for the first challenge of 2014 at Stampin' for the Weekend. The theme for the challenge is "Happy Birthday" and the sponsor is Live and Love Crafts.Challenges don't get much easier than this. Your card can be masculine or feminine, for a child or an adult which means you can make a card for anybody so everybody can play along this fortnight.Here's the deets:stamp - My Favorite Things "Snowflake Splendor:ink - My Favorite Things "Berrylicious"paper - Close To My Heart "Frosted" pack; My Favorite Things "Smooth White" card stockmiscellaneous - bling; My Favorite Things "Snowflake Splendor" die-namics; Spellbinder's Labels 18Here's the challenges:Stampin' for the Weekend #1 - Happy BirthdaySouthern Girls - It's All New (new stamp set and new paper package)Delightful Challenges - Brrrr!Kaboodle Doodles #206 = Winter WonderlandCraft Your Passion #196 - Cool ColoursThe Squirrel and the Fox #61 - Show Off Your New StuffThanks for stopping by, come back again.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

How sweet is this little lamb critter? At first I thought she was a poodle but then I realized she has hooves not paws but this is only a technicality so if you want her to be a poodle she's a poodle, I doubt that there are many people out there who will bother to argue with you about that, what matters is that she is just a really cute little fairy sending birthday wishes. This stamp is from the "Fairy Special -clear" stamp set from Paper Pretties. This is just a totally adorable set of three fairies, the other two are a hippo and an elephant plus there are five sentiments. It's a fantastic stamp set to have if you've got a little girl in your life. She'll love getting a cards with these fairies on them and she'll love giving cards made with these images to her friends. You might even consider having a mother/daughter or auntie/niece crafting afternoon and help her to make some cards.My very pink card is for this week's "Monochromatic" challenge PWC293 at Paper Pretties. Normally a monochromatic challenge is something I would prefer to pass up so this week I got to push myself a little bit outside my comfort zone and in the end once I thought it out, the only stretching was in the thinking and planning stage. Looking at it, it looks like a card I could have made any day of the week for just about any reason, I do love pink. So I expect all of you to pick a color and play along with our challenge this week. Don't forget to link your creation up. You could win 5 digis.Here's the deets:stamp - Paper Pretties "Fairy Special" clearink - Memento "Tuxedo Black" and VersaMagic "Pink Petunia"paper - Stampin' Up "Blushing Bride" card stock and "Sending Love Specialty" dspmiscellaneous - copics; Gelly Roll marker; Stampin' Up corner punch; Creative Memories corner rounder punch;Pebbles heart button; candy dotHere's the challenges:Paper Pretties PWC293 - MonochromaticPile It On #2 - Holidays/CelebrationsSister Act #39 - Anything GoesSimply Create Too #52 - Anything GoesFussy and Fancy #105 - MonochromaticFriday Mash Up FM142 - (Twine and/or) BirthdayThanks for stopping by, come back again.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Buttons! I love buttons, but my husband can't stand to touch them if they aren't attached to clothes, go figure. Lucky for him he isn't a paper crafter because today's challenge at Paper Pretties is "Buttons". So go dig out your stash of buttons and make up a card or project then post it on our blog. We can't wait to see what you make. My card uses "Button" that cute as can be mouse. Normally I don't consider mice cute but since he's digital I make an exception in his case. The sentiment was printed on a piece of card stock that matches the card base because I wanted the sentiment to blend into the background. I've kept this relatively clean and simple, this way I'll have a card that can be used for just about anybodyHere's the deets:stamp - Paper Pretties "Button"ink - printerpaper - Stampin' Up "Garden Green" and "Whisper White"; October Afternoon "Modern Homemaker"miscellaneous - copics; twine; buttonsHere's the challenges:Paper Pretties PWC292 - ButtonsPapertake Weekly - Anything GoesThe Squirrel and the Fox #60 - Anything GoesThanks for stopping by, come back again.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first challenge of the new year at Paper Pretties. Now that the holidays are over it's time to get back in the groove and start crafting. So here's our first challenge of the new year "Thank You", make a card or project using "thank you" as your theme. Nice huh? You'll get to use it to to thank some one for the great present they gave you for the great Christmas present they gave you. Nice how that works out.When you're finished stop over at the Paper Pretties blog and link it up at our challenge so that you have a chance to win the prize of five digital images. If you pop over there now you can see the great samples the rest of the design team made. They always do a great job, if you have some time take a few minutes to leave them some comments, you'll make them very happy.Here's the deets:stamp - Paper Pretties "Everyday Lily - Clear"ink - Memento "Tuxedo Black" and "Teal Zeal"paper - Close To My Heart "Whoops A Daisy" pack (retired)Miscellaneous - copics; Close To My Heart "Pretty Pins"; stickles; My Mind's Eye Tickled Pink bling; Stampin' Up corner punch; flowersHere's the challenges:Paper Pretties PWC 291 - Thank YouSplitcoast Stampers SC467 - SketchThanks for stopping by, come back again.